Life Goes On
by ReBirth-Syndrome
Summary: Set in the Capital Wasteland, you got yourself a narrative which might as well be bland as the cesspool the writer came from.
1. The Prologue

The DC ruins, dangerous. It was an understatement but was true nonetheless, especially since most who its dwellen in its ancient buildings and underground paths want to spread pain and devestation. You got the raiders, pretty much psychos withe few of them having any smarts. Their favourite past-times were killing, raping, pillaging and torture. Then you got Talon company, they were pretty much raiders with business cards, 'cept they had combat armor, acceptable training and were properly equipped most of the time unless you were one the recruits, at least they were decent enough to leave you alone half-the time. Then you got the feral ghouls, They rarely wander the upper surface of DC but there are a lot of them underground, most of their kind are easily dealt with but sheer numbers and a few stronger variants of their kind can make a Mutie Overlord shudder. Speaking of Muties, The worst thing a person wandering the ruins has to watch out are the Supermutants, Hulking figures witha sort of yellowish-green skin color, now they're dumb, very dumb but are also very strong and very very angry fuckers, can't aim for shit but their strength, endurance and some of the things they arm themselves with would turn anyone and anything to a nice mess of blood and gore.

Of course you also got the good ol' Brotherhood of Steel to try and clean up the ruins, and I don't mean the jackass Outcasts and the guys from out east if I got what I know 'bout em correct. These folks have Power Armor and enough weaponry to put theses bastards down, especially after they kicked the asses of the enclave. Unlike the afforemention jackasses they ,from time to time, conscript (if you can call it that, from what I've seen it was more like askin') or voulanteer, heard their training is pretty tough soon which makes me wonder if they'd let me enlist.

Now all those things I just said I learned mostly from my old man, tough bastard could probably explore all of DC and kick all the jackasses to whatever damn hole they crawled out

_Son, you talkin' about me? Didn't I say I'd do the talking when its my turn?_

Calm down old man, I was praisin' ya, not narrating your part of the damn story.

_I hope so, I didn't agree to this only to have my darn part taken, I'd have preferred fixing my gun to this bullshit._

I know that Pa, really, you should be telling the fella whose writin' all this 'stead of me. Okay then, Lets get this damn show on the road.


	2. The Bland Begining

The Fallout series belongs to Bethesda, I don't own it nor do I profit from it. If I am sued, ya get nothing, nadda, zilch and all that jazz...

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><p>Alright then, our little tale starts at 2256, spring if memory serves me right. It was sometime after the Brotherhood moved into the pentagon and began exploring around DC and began their almighty crusade against the Super Mutants, who were at the time infested the ruins like a plague and would kill or kidnap people any chance they got, pretty much the biggest threat to the Capital Wasteland. Thanks to the brotherhood the ruins were a bit safer, well at the time it was safer for people like me, Mercs, to travel. It was only a somewhat a year so the big green bastards weren't that less of a nuisance. I was in my thirties at the time and already had plenty of experience tucked under my belt, was pretty accomplished too, not trying to boast but when you're talkin' bout yourself it tends to happen.<p>

I was one of the smarter mercs too, made sure I found a nice little hideaway near Rivet city that wasn't so easily found and easy to protect, at the same time I found a few decent spots to hunt the 'jolly' green giants. At the time, and till this day, it was one of the common jobs a merc could find other than being some sort of body guard for a trader or a caravan, and it was more honest than being some hitman. The brotherhood was the one who paid me for my troubles, paying 30 caps for each kill I made, provided I had proof of course. Usually I provided their noses, if you're wonderin' of course. The Caps I earned allowed me to buy provisions, ammunition and parts to fix my guns and I'd still had a decent amount left. My choice of weapons were a Light Machine Gun chambered in 5.56, made sure I had enough of those two-hundred round Magazines since the thing ate through bullets at a high rate, 'course I made sure to fire in bursts as to not overheat the barrel. Also had a 10mm Pistol, nothing special about other than being my favorite pistol, I suppose there was also the fact that it had a slightly longer barrel. And last, but not least, was my two Combat Knives, one strapped to my left shoulder and the other strapped to my right thigh.

I also wore a nice set of reinforced Leather Armor, I know some of you are thinking why I don't wear metal or combat armor since, combined with the machine gun I carried, and I'd be a lethal sonuvabitch. Well, the reason for that was that the damn gun is heavy, and working alone meant I'd have to be more concerned with being quick to get the hell out of situations where my death was a high possibility, so being light enough to run fast enough was damn concern, since those muties were fast assholes I'd also have to maneuver around a lot of corners if I wanted to lose 'em.

But I've been rambling long enough now, you see….. My day started like any other day, woke up in my humble abode, which I'm quite proud of. Had a living room slash kitchen, two bedrooms and one bathroom with WORKING water, granted its radioactive but I made sure to use some Rad-X and Radway pretty often. Used one of the bedrooms to store any extra gear I had. Anyway, after freshening myself up and having a small but filling breakfast I started my day of Mutant Hunting. I had to go through the damn Metro that was nearby to enter the deeper part of the ruins, now if some you bothered to read what my boy said at the beginning of this story you'd know that the Metro is nor one of the places a person would go for sightseeing, EVER. I remember I had my LMG in my hands with it being loaded as I wandered through the damnable place, I was nervous as hell, now understand that a normal feral on its own or just a small number of 'em really were easy to take out, they ran fast and didn't really register pain but where pretty easy to kill. What's worrying is encountering a large group of them isn't uncommon in places like this and some ancient buildings, it would have been worse if I encountered a damn Ghoul Reaver, it seems the radiation that made their skin so damn hard that it would take a lot of bullets from my LMG to put just one down out of its misery. Really, a group of raiders or mutants would be better; then again a mutie overlord is another problem all on its own.

As I carefully made my way through I heard the sound I dreaded most at the time, the raspy scream of a feral ghoul, signaling its buddies that it's found some poor bastard to kill, namely me. Turning around with my LMG ready to tear 'em to shreds, already I realized I was being swarmed by five of those piss ants, considering I wouldn't have enough time to shoulder my LMG I hip fired and rotated left and right to shoot 'em down 'Easy to kill' I thought to myself at the time, as I may have said earlier there wasn't much trouble killing the regular ferals. I didn't have the time to stand around as I heard another raspy shout in the distance, more would be coming and I didn't want to waste precious bullets on those Zombies, I know its racist but that only applied to normal ghouls, not ferals. With adrenalin rushing through my body I ran as fast I could in the opposite direction of the incoming swarm of ferals, passing by the ruined train cars and ducking into the maintenances rooms, eventually making it to the other terminal after a good degree of running. After the adrenalin left my body it was sufficed to say that with all the running I did while I carried my LMG made me pretty exhausted, as unwise as it was I rested myself against a wall, my legs were feeling a little sore but they were used to it, and I still hadn't met my quota of 5 muties for the day… of course I mentally cursed myself after I quickly realized how I close to the one place where it would have been considered a 'recreation' of anchorage, the Mall. Some of you may be going that at least I'll find a lot of them fuckers there, and the rest may be going 'You Stupid asshole, get your dumbass out of there' which is what I told myself, unfortunately that would have meant backtracking to where all those ferals where so…yeah, into the fire I went.

As I poked my head outside of the metro exit, entrance…..the door, I noted I would be stepping into hell. Now at the time the brotherhood had just started digging the trenches you all would have been familiar with later on, so a lot of the fighting straight up face to face, with the only cover coming from some oversized hills that were formed a long time after the great war. When I thought I knew what war was all about, out comes this big battle that demonstrated total warfare at its finest…..or worst, while the brotherhood had the advantage of better training and power armor alongside better weapons, the mutants had their endurance, strength and sheer number to back them up. Already before I walked into the battlefield from hell there were bodies strewn about in large numbers, more Mutie bodies rather than Brotherhood corpses, not to say they didn't lose a lot of good people in that battle. I made my own contribution as I joined in the fight, not out of choice since I looked ill prepared compared to brotherhood. Making sure I made my way to brotherhoods side of the battle I shot muties left and right as I desperately tried not to get shot by either gun fire or energy shot, nor by explosions for that matter.

"SARGE, we got a local" I heard one of the brotherhood soldiers shout as I neared their side "YOU, Stay way behind before we shoot you ourselves "He added, needless to say I complied by going to the back of the line, I've been shot by a laser beam before, trust me when I say you have to count your blessings if you get off with an agonizing burn

"Well well, if it isn't Hans" I knew I forgot something, my boy is chuckling right now because I forgot to tell you all my blasted name, its Hans Messer "should I assume you took a wrong turn when you started your hunt for the day?" Asshole, he's actually a nice guy but still, Asshole "Listen, just stay behind our humble wall of sandbags and makeshift barricade and you'll be fine"

By the way, the name of the knight-sergeant in question was Lawrence Silvara, don't ask me why his family name was Silvara but it's safe to say Knight Lawrence is his preferred moniker "Yeah yeah, You don't have to tell me twice Lawrence, ain't like I planned on being here, ended up disturbing a hive of ghoulies" Needless to say, it was either be overrun ferals or join a battle between the Brotherhood and the Super Mutants.

"Heh, love to chat but I gotta get back to killing the Mutants here Hans" He said to me as he rested his laser Rifle over the sandbags and fired the damn thing. Now Lawrence is one of the best the Brotherhood had to offer "And for goodness sake how 'bout you use that machine gun to help kill the muties. You just might get paid….or you know, live, if that's your thing" I only grumbled to that, bastard had a point after all, either get freaking shot or get freaking shot while taking some hulking green bastards down to hell with me. After replacing the Magazine, or Drum if you want to get technical about it, with a full one I set the barrel on the sandbags and took a deep breath, had to be calm after all, and looked down the guns shoddy iron sights. Immediately I fired bursts at any and all mutants who were stupid enough to charge us or just plain unlucky to be in my line of sight, there was a reason I lugged this heavy gun around, and by any deity who was listening, it was a fucking good one. One after the other I helped bring down a good number of these jolly green assholes, I'd describe the kills for you but that would be pointlessly long, just too damn many.

Time during that battle seemed to extend to eternity though, and eternity combined with the Super mutant's natural durability. If it weren't for firing in bursts I would have probably run out of bullets long ago, after all, I wasn't pinning someone down, rather, I was mowing down scores of those insufferable green lummoxes and to let anyone of these get close... Well, I wouldn't want to think on that.

Predictably though, I eventually ran out of damn bullets and panic hit me like a sledgehammer. I had be to calm though "Calm down, this is a job, you kill these bastards for a living and you survive each day like you had a divorce with fate" I told myself, usually I think it but it has about the same effect

"Hate to interrupt your outer monologue pally, but I need you to cover me "Lawrence, the brotherhood knight I just told you folks about, told me and as if to answer my prayer the man handed me a ninety-round drum for gun. I was so relieved and smiling like a fool I almost hugged the bastard in the heat of the goddamned fight, of course I settled with taking the drum and reloading my damn machine gun. As I looked down the crappy iron sights, which didn't really bother me much since usually the rate of fire and the ammunition capacity remedied that right up and the gun itself wasn't really accurate. Lawence was right in my line of sight as he ran forward, seems that a brother-in-arms got badly injured, had to make sure none of those muties got any closer to 'em. Almost had a close call when one of those muties appeared right behind Lawrence, it was about to turn him into a pancake with that sledgehammer it had. Hoooowieeee , I almost accidently shot the poor guy as I fired at the towering beast. Fired a total of ten rounds a that sonuvabitch , with only four going where they needed. Two got the thing right at the bottom of its neck, one at its cheek and the last on the right side of its head. It was overkill for that bastard as it fell right on its back while Lawrence finally got back behind friendly lines with the wounded soldier in tow as he let go of the handle that was on the top of the soldiers T45 power armor breastplate.

While the Brotherhood at the time was still using those T51s they also started using those T45s they found at Pentagon, now known as the citadel. Apparently the T51s weren't commonplace here in DC like they were back out west so a good number of them had to use the T45s since it was available in such large quantities, making them easy repairable whenever needed. Of course there was a trade off since the T51 was lighter and whatever material it was made of absorbed more damage, also its wiring was right underneath the suit. Whereas the T45 was heavier and clunky to move in since its protection was provided with steel plates, and some of the wiring was exposed at certain places which meant it was susceptible to more damage. It did make there punches mean as hell though compared to the T51, which already gave a promising strength increase.

[Old Man, your blabbering on again]

Oh sorry, Now I was saying before I yammered on about power armor and saying things that I don't really know a thing about…

[It's called breaking the fourth wall in this case Old Man]

Shut yer yapper boy. Now, to finally get this out of the way; Lawrence dragged his pal back to friendly lines and I saved their asses from going flat from a hammer wielding mutant, a couple of other brotherhood soldiers came and gently carried the wounded soldier away.

"I believe I owe you a drink" Lawrence said to me as he resumed his post, aiming his Laser Rifle and firing those red bolts of death at any unlucky mutants who got hit. I have to say one thing about Laser Rifles…..

[Not now Old Man, The guy whose writing this piece of craps says he'll do the explaining at the end of the chapter, no need to ramble on again]

What? Oh, Alright. Since I'm being pressed for time….. After an hour of constant combat with those giant green thumbs, we finally repelled the bastards. After firing god knows how many rounds in that little party of blood and gore, I was lying there on the ground, mentally exhausted and somewhat physically. I wasn't a partaker of booze usually, but by whatever deity was out there, I desperately needed one.

"I see your enjoying yourself" I turned to the sound of knight Lawrence's familiar voice, The fella still wearing that T51 armor, 'cept the helmet was removed, letting me see his face. Now Lawrence is what I'd call a 'playboy', the type of guy gals (and a few gents, seen the effect firsthand) would go gaga over. He had blond hair and blue gentle eyes, known as the deadly combo, and a thin face with a smile that just added to the deadliness. He stood at 5'8" and any more than that I did not know at the time "So how do you feel after that face-to-face battle with a horde of green neighbors?"

"Like a single deathclaw would be an absolute mercy" Which was an overstatement, but I was a guy with a 5.56 machine gun with a two hundred round drum capacity, I'd probably be able to kill one " By the way, I demand a thousand caps for this crap"

Lawrence chuckled as he shook his head at me, amused I was thinking about caps rather than something philosophic I suppose "How about I give you three hundred and fifty and we reload your drums?" Well, it was pretty generous and the guy was a friendly face so I nodded in acceptance before I asked my next question.

"So…..how many did you guys lose?" He gave a sad smile at that question; it felt like it had to be asked really. Might've even stayed and help bury the bodies if they'd let me.

"We lost seventy-three brothers and sisters in this battle, and we still need to dig trenches to prepare for a possible upcoming one" He said as he sat down next to me "All for the slim chance of finding technology in some of these Museums and the capital building up ahead"

"Well, at least it allows some people to semi-safely pass through here" I said, trying to at least comfort the guy when he felt down, shoulda asked the question at a later time, but I needed to ask.

"True, wish our elders in the east had that sentiment" He shook his head and looked down at his hands "You know, we've been gathering mostly weapons technology and dismissing other technology. When I asked Paladin Casdin about this, he didn't tell me anything useful… Genius said I just had to gather the tech for us to 'preserve' "He snorted " He even paused for a bit before he said that, as if he was trying to come up with an actual answer"

"Least your helping people, even if it is indirectly" I shrugged, the guy was as idealistic as their elder. Now I may be rambling but I had the honor of meeting the elder once, and I saw in his eyes a guy who actually gave a damn.

"Indirectly is the right word, directly is what it should be though. The fact of the matter is, If we didn't think there was a possibility of technology here than the elders back home would have had us looking someplace else. The super mutants are a 'minor' presence in their eyes" He said with an unfriendly tone that made me shudder, wasn't even winter, I think…Never been good in knowing the dates "Ah, but I've been complaining long enough, let's see about giving you your deeply desired caps and bullets?"

"Much appreciated Lawrence" I said, sometime later after obtaining my well-deserved caps and havin' my drums loaded up, I ended up travelling through the lovely metro, the ferals probably having dispersed to wherever they hid and seeing the familiar sight of rivet city in the setting sun, a broken ship where the half that was standing had people livin' in it, While the capsized half just laid, murks probably living there.

But that wasn't were I was heading, didn't need anything at the time being so I headed on home….. That was, till I stumbled on a sorrowful sight. You see folks; I stumbled upon an unconscious woman and child. As the shocked honest person I was, I headed over there and checked for their vitals. Sad to say the woman died, the kid though, he was alive, but his body was feverish and he didn't look like had proper meal in ages. He was a five year old, from the looks of it "Looks like I'll be visiting rivet city after all" I mumbled after gently picking up the lad, letting my gun hang on my back as I quickly walked to the town, went up the ever familiar steps that led to the intercom that would let people talk to the gaurds on the other side. I pressed on the damn intercom, before the poor guy on the other side could say a thing I went and shouted "NO TIME GENIUS, I GOTTA DYIN' LITTLE BOY HERE" Well, I was certainly glad he didn't think I was lying as they quickly rotated that bridge and I was darting toward the other side.

"Should've know it was you Messer" The familiar voice of chief Danvers said "Is the kid breathing?" He said as he got close, looking concerned at the kids well-being. Danvers was a founding member of Rivet City, guy was in his forties probably and had dark, unkempt hair . He had the familiar black security armor, it was a lot like the regular combat armor 'cept not as good "Alright, let's get him to the infirmary"

Sometime after, I was sitting outside the infirmary, run by a young jackass named Preston, said I had to wait outside and be patient. Since I have no doubt you folks know who he is, you can imagine he was pretty young, sadly even then his bedside manner stank. At this time I was waiting patiently, Chief Davis sitting next to me, keeping me company. Across of me was a broken mirror, it was a big thing really, only thing broken was the upper left edge. I looked so damn tired, if my cropped hair were any longer it would have looked unkempt. The bags under my brown eyes were pretty much there for the world to see, I wasn't waiting long, half hour really, just so damn tired after the day's events. … and I'm gonna leave you all waiting till next time.

[Personally, I think it's a bad place for a cliffhanger]

Ah shaddup boy, all you get to do is add a bit of words while I yammer on some more, so when I say next time, I MEAN NEXT TIME… Have a nice day or night everyone.

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><p>AUTHOR'S NOTE<p>

The DC Ruins at this point of time is infested with the lovable, green giants known as the super mutants. These fellas are the result of an experiment preformed by the US government using the FEV (Forced Evolutionary Virus) which caused these folks to turn from simple humans to very very angry neandthrals who were very very big and very very angry and have also created their 'pets' the centaurs, which I will introduce later on if you don't know what they are. The reason why they infest it in such a large number had forced them back there in an attempt to contain them and prevent them from overrunning the Wasteland, earning the thanks of wastelanders all over the Capital Wasteland because they can move around the barren landscape a little easier.

As mentioned above, the Super Mutants of the Capital Wasteland are aggressive creatures with very low intelligence, Their sheer size, strength and numbers make up for this little fact and it seems their 'evolution' doesn't stop as at some point in their long lifespans they become Behemoths. The sizes of these behemoths can reach a few stories high and it takes a good deal of effort to put one down. Their Intimidatory-stage super mutants known as 'overlords' are just as dangerous and are often equipped with very dangerous weaponry in-game, most common examples being Tr-laser Rifles. Their main interests are kidnapping wastelanders to turn into more mutants, eating wastelanders and killing them. The last two not necessarily in that order. However there are two calm (relatively speaking) and highly intelligent super mutants known as Fawkes and Uncle Leo, Fawkes is perhaps one of the first East-coast super mutants while Leo seems to have come along much later, both are considered outcasts because both prefer peace over conflict. Fawkes can be found in Vault 87, the source of the East Coast Mutants, while Leo can be encountered randomly as you roam the wastes.

The Brotherhood of Steel is a Military Organization whose founders are military personal who have survived the great atomic fire that engulfed the world. In the beginning they were interested in a variety of technology to perserve for the sake of humanity, with the possibility of re-introducing the technology at a later date when needed. Unfortunately as time went by they started gathering mostly military tech and hoarding it away to be unused by 'outsiders'. The East Coast Brotherhood at the current time were mainly following their number one order of collecting technology, however they gain popularity amongts Capital Wasteland inhabitants due to the fact they keep the Super Mutants at bay. The Brotherhood in all its various incarnations are known for their use of Power Armor, which makes the wearer a walking tank and makes carrying heavy equipment or weaponry easier. At the time they would have also had used Energy Weaponry more actively, as they had only recently arrived and set up their main base at the Citadle, formerly the Pentagon.

The Capital Wasteland Brotherhood are led by Elder Owyn Lyons, who is considered Idealistic and was very much sympathetic to plights the denizens of the Capital Wasteland Faced. This gave me the Idea to have the Brotherhood hire mercenaries s to aid in thinning the Super Mutant Populations, since the Brotherhood led by Lyons would be more willing to dea with 'outsiders' rather than the original backhome.

The Mall in the current time of the game had these large trenches and with the Brotherhood presence being so recent I thought it would make sense they'd dig them since they would possibly search the vast are for possible tech, and would use the trenches to make combating the Mutants easier

Knight-Sargent Lawrence Silvara is an Original Character,

Rivet City is a settlement that was founded by researchers, originally it was just to be a simple research station. Eventually people began to flock there as the old aircraft carrier the researchers inhabited was safe and easily defendable, eventually a council was formed and thus Rivet City came to be.

Cheif Brad Danvers, the head of Rivet City's Security was one of the founding members and I had idea that he may have been still head of security at the time, since there was no indication he was replaced other than Harkness at the game's current timeline.

That is all for now, please review and if you have any questions please ask away. Also, please be civil while reviewing, I won't get much better if someone goes 'YOU SUCK DUR HUR' without actually explaining whats wrong.


	3. That Hurts

The Fallout series is owned by Bethesda, I do not own nor profit from it. If you sue, I'll come up the damn winner because I got nothing you gain, ya see…..

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><p>[Old man, start blabberin']<p>

All right, all right, don't crap your diapers. Now where was I?

[Outside Doc Preston's office with chief Danvers]

Thank you, now you not only pointed out that I was old but I have a bad memory…

[Just tryin' to be helpful]

Yeah yeah, as my asshole of a son said, I was waiting outside that damn office with chief Danvers keeping me company. Danvers' was a nice fella, he was a family man too, nine year old kid. He was as worried as I was about the kid, even more I'd bet. First met the man before I set up my little hideaway that was close to the old ship, obviously he looked at me and mymachine gun and thought of me as trouble, any guy who kept the peace usually thought anyone who had a dangerous weapon other than a knives, clubs or pistols was trouble. They were right most of the time, but enough of that…..

I was sitting there worried; I'm not unfamiliar with seeing bodies of all kinds, ranging from very young to old. But it breaks my heart to see the young bodies, those little tykes that the wasteland mercilessly chewed up and spit out just as they were blind and innocent to the world. After a short while Preston came out of his office with his familiar, pessimistic yet also relieved face as he we quickly stood up "The kids alright, it appears he hasn't eaten in quite a while, along with being dehydrated it's no surprise he was unconscious and feverish when you brought him in"

At the word 'alright' I was breathing out a sigh of relief, Immediately though I asked " So what now?"

"He needs to stay in the infirmary for at least week, I have to make sure our young patient becomes well enough to move around before I let him ago, after that….. It's not my problem" The last part the jackass said was spoken in a 'nice' blunt manner "If you guys wish to see the kid, I suggest tomorrow….. Right now the kid needs to sleep some more and I don't want _anyone_ disturbing him" The last part was directed at me, so I accidently broke his favorite mug when I came to him last time, it was a complete accident. I didn't mean for my gun to accidently knock it down as I turned; its barrel was damn long "Now unless there is another passed out kid that needs taking care of, Goodbye" He said as he slammed the door to the infirmary shut, so much for not trying to disturb the kid, asshole.

"So Chief, what's gonna happen to the kid? " I asked him.

"Well, that's not an easy call to make" He said, as he sat back in his chair.

'Not an easy call?' I thought, that gave me confused look as if asking why.

"There's no one capable of taking care him, most people here are either too busy, already have mouths to feed or just don't want the diffuclties of taking care of a kid. I already got my wife and little Lana to take care off, I don't have the caps nor the room to look after the kid. Holmes is already tied with running the market , along with her own shop and her grandkid to also look out for,Her own son is also busy fixing 'round the ship, Preston is always cooped up in his office with patients constantly coming to him, mostly because of sea sickness. Pinkerton is a major prick and he's usually busy along with the rest of his assistants and many more reasons, so you see; there aren't exactly any available or good candidates for taking care of the kid" Bastard had a point sadly, and he can't let the kid be alone for most of the time even if his people do keep an eye on him, he needed an actual parent figure in his life.

"I'll look after him" My response came quick, to be honest I wasn't a good idea myself since all I had to take care off was myself.

"Are you sure about that, Hans?" He looked at me with a surprised look, he apparently doubted my abilities to take care of others, much less a kid… At the time I was inclined to agree with him, but what else could I do? "As a father myself I can clearly say being a parent isn't an easy job. Other than the obvious fact you have to feed the kid, you have to make sure he doesn't get into trouble and teach him responsibility. You also have to manage your schedule to include spending time with the boy; a lot of your personal time will be on hold, in fact you may not be able to do them till he's older…. Hell, raising him alone will take ALL your time" All darn good points they were, but I was raised without parents myself, and I was darn lucky I didn't turn out rotten, nor dead for that matter.

"I'll still do it, I make enough caps to support a mouth other than my own, and my Merc gig is usually a couple of times a week so I can manage A LOT of time to spend with him if that's what it take" I spoke with conviction in my voice.

"And what about the days you do have to work? Who's going to look after him then, I know you go after those super mutants in the ruins and turn in their noses to the brotherhood, might take you the whole day to get done"

"I live close by Danvers, the days I work I can just leave him here and pick him up at night" I told him, it wasn't a long walk. Morning I'd drop him off and nights I'd pick him up and head home "And I KNOW your wife would be delighted to babysit the kid when I'm out, and your kid will have a little playmate"

"Alright alright, you can take care of him. But don't come to me if it's too tough to handle" I won that argument pretty easily, now the tough part this… How the hell do I explain to a five year old kid his mom passed away" I know what you're thinking, and tough luck genius, that problem is yours now" Goddamn that bastard.

I slept at Rivet city that day, those darn cots were as uncomfortable as hell…..at least I think there called cots, can't understand why they don't call beds their proper term instead of cots. I went over to Preston's Infirmary after I had a breakfast, the Gary guy who ran the local food joint was a crappy cook but I didn't have the heart to tell the guy… It would be like telling a kid Santa Clause isn't real. As I walked through the door of Prestons' office, receiving an unhappy look from the doc, I saw the kid on one of the infirmary's beds with an IV tube attached and still sleeping. I thought I was a little early, but as soon as I was about to turn and wait outside, I saw his eyes slowly open "Hey doc, the kids awake"

Preston got up to check the little guy, kid looked confused that's for sure, and confused usually brought food with it in this situation "It's okay, we're your friends, you're alright" The doc said in a soothing voice, trying to comfort the confused boy. The kid looked scared as he turned his head around, looking for his mom, it just made telling him that harder. That moment hurt more than being tortured by raiders combined with mutants trying to full someone out of power armor.

"Where is my mommy?" He said, his little green eyes said as he stared at the doc then to me, there were tears swelling in his eyes. I wanted to tell him, but I couldn't…. the words just didn't come out. How do you tell a kid his mom died, god, that time I realized I never even buried the body….. it could have been super mutant or dog show by now. A moment later the kid seemed to realize it all by his own as he buried his head in his pillow and cried, the Doc and I couldn't do anything…..we just stood there like a pair of dunderheads.

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><p>AUTHOR'S NOTES:<p>

All rivet city citizens exist in the game either in written or physical form.

This chapter is short but that's mainly because I'm admittedly lazy. Again, I'd appreciate it if anyone reviewed it, Either with a simple comment or constructively.


	4. That Trick!

I don't own Fallout yadda yadda belongs to Bethesda yada yada I gain no profit…

Back to where we left of , huh? Thanks for ending on something emotional jackass…. Now I have to remember all over again.

Last time I stopped to when the kid seemed to realize his mom ain't in this godforsaken wasteland anymore, me and Doc Preston just stood there as the kid put his head in the pillow and just cried. I looked at the Doc, who only looked at the kid with a sad face 'This…..Stinks' I could only think, A few moments later a woman in her early forties entered the room, a small girl by her side. It was Danvers's wife and kid.

"Excuse me, Hans, Preston" We turned our attention to her as she gave her concerned gaze, little Lana was looking at the crying child that was in the bed "Did you tell him…..?"

"He kinda guessed…." I said, my voice kinda choked up, didn't really know what else to say. She quickly walked to the child's side as she went on a knee and placed a hand on his back.

" I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you two to leave for the time being" She said to both me and Preston " Lana sweety, can you go outside for a bit?" She said softly to her own child, and then whispered to the little kid to keep calm.

As we walked outside with little Lana in tow, we met Chief Danvers who was sitting on a chair outside, three more prepped for us all to sit. Little Lana opted to sit on her Daddy's lap instead "So I guess it went about as expected, huh?"

I didn't say anything as I just stared at the door, my own mind was telling me again that I might not be able to take care of the kid 'Gotta do something, can't let him be alone' I said to myself repeatedly.

"I just realized I've been kicked out of my own clinic "Chuckled Preston as he pulled out a cigarette and put it in his mouth, he was considerate enough not to light it in little Lana's presence "Wonder how long she's gonna take"

"If I had to guess, as long as it takes" Danvers said, his little girl resting her head on his chest " How you holding Hans" He asked, snapping me from my trance, I swear I could have sat there like that all day like some dopes who wait a long time in one place when being asked.

[Old man, you breaking the 4th wall?]

Maybe… As I was saying I could have sat there all day staring at the infirmary door " Uh….. to be perfectly honest, I'm just lost in thought" If I said I was okay he might as well pressed it, would have had to snap at him and since he had little Lana I didn't dare.

"Daddy, is that boy gonna be alright?" Lana asked , her head still rested on her daddy's chest while her brown eyes just stared at the door like the rest of us. Didn't really bother asking why she was here.

"Don't worry sweetheart, your momma is gonna make sure he stops crying so he'll be alright " He said to her as held her close and kissed her head "Listen, Mrs. Holmes grandson should be awake by now, how about you go play with him?" He said softly to her, she slowly nodded and got off his lap as she went to visit the Holmes boy.

We just sat there in silence some more, It must have been an hour I suppose since little Lana left and we were stuck outside the room. Soon, the door opened up a bit and Danvers' wife, Carla, slid out the room and gave us a quiet, emotionally exhausted look "He's asleep now, poor boy just cried himself to asleep" She said as we stood up, Danvers embracing his wife as she burrowed her head into her shoulder, giving short sobs herself.

[This story is a damn downer pops]

Shaddap you, you got no tact, you know that? Now, as I was saying before I got interrupted by Mister 'Sensitivity' here. Carla gave short sobs as her husband was comforting her, whispering that everything is going to be alright. Preston quietly retreated back inside his office, bastard needs to work after all… Myself, I decided to head to the Muddy Rudder, it was Rivet Cities only watering hole at the time, even if the owner, Belle Bonny, isn't the talkative sort and like most bartenders , she is content in taking your caps while you drown yourself in booze.

"Well, I usually don't have customers this early in the morning….especially not you, you gonna talk my ear off?" I was met with gaze of Belle Bonny, she wasn't an attractive woman but she did have the deceiving appearance of someone who wants to listen to your troubles, I simply shook my head "Good, so what's your poison?"

"Gimme a beer, and not that watered down crap that looks like it" Unfortunately that means its 'good stuff' meaning I paid extra, not much but at least I get a powerful taste in my mouth. Not being a big fan of drinking I took my time with my poison, taking small sips now and then which irritated Belle to no end. Apparently with how quiet the place was my sipping is as loud as the old creaking ship itself

"ENOUGH, DRINK IT LIKE A NORMAL PERSON OR GET OUTTA MY BAR" She shouted as she slammed her hand on the counter , she practically startled me half to death " Please tell me whatevers got you drinking like some dog out of toilet has nothing to do with the kid? "She then had that look which said it was a stupid question; I only looked surprised "What? Almost everyone on the ship knows you plan on adopting the Kid, this kind of news travels through this old ship like an echo " Sheesh, I knew me and Danvers conversation wasn't quiet but it definitely wasn't loud enough for some random passerby to hear, hell, no one even passed us by if I remember right…

"Crap, well you got me" I sighed as I rested my head on one of my hands "To be honest, I'm having doubts about it….. I said to Danvers that I'd do my best to raise my kid and thought most of the angles out, I think….. Some shaky bridges are just gonna have to be crossed when I see 'em" I said to her "But I never had parent nor anything close to a parent-figure as a kid, all I know how to do is shoot a gun and take it apart for repairs. How's a guy such as myself raise a kid with such a shoddy background?" but then I received a very simple method to solve it as Belle pulled out some pre-war coin.

"In most cases you just rough it genius, you think parents or guardian type figures know a fucking thing about what they're doin'?" She said as she looked at me, coin in hand "So we don't have to go through a pointlessly long conversation, how about we flip this old pre-war coin, heads says you keep the kid and tails says you leave the little snot to grow up alone" From the looks of it if I recall, the tails position was what was face up, never did get a good look at the thing.

"A coin toss? I don't….."She interrupted me with a damned glar, had to let lady luck decide for me and just agree to the coin toss. When she flipped the coin and called it was tails, my heart san at that and I just refused "No way, I am not letting that kid alone Belle…."

"Why? Its tails, you don't have to deal with the brat and live your usual life of killing those muties"

"Either way the kids got no one, how the hell should I let a damn coin toss dictate wether I should keep the kid or not?" I said feeling a little pissed, she only gave a little grin

"Well, then you got your answer" Some of you kind folks must've understood how confused I looked, didn't take long for me to realize what she was saying. That small bit of anger and sadness promptly faded and I just chuckled like an Idiot, after staying for a bit I headed back to the infirmary, ready to properly talk with my kid.

Didn't realize till a few years later that Belle had been using a damn double tailed coin, and I thought they only came in the head variety….


End file.
